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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: September 20th, 2023

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  • I wonder if UBI is more unsustainable, or unsustainable at all - imagine a future where most things can be produced so efficiently without the involvement of humans that the idea of not doing so is simply preposterous, akin to insist on using horses after motorization became widely available. Employing humans might incur a higher lost opportunity cost than simply paying everybody to do “nothing”. I’m using “” since all those people would of course do something, just not grind for bare survival or “the economy”, which is arguably isn’t necessary anymore, or at least not as necessary as it once was.

    In a way, overcoming work (as in “unwanted compensated grind”) is a way to truly live up to our potential as humans because it asks the very basic question of “how to be?” outside of what for millennia was basic necessity or narrowly defined by society.


  • China has no claim to Taiwan whatsoever and I’m not talking about history. The majority of the Taiwanese people do not want unification, peaceful or otherwise, and that is all that matters. They’ve seen what happened to China’s “Special Administrative Region” and know what’s in store for them once the grubby old men yelling at flags in Peking get their greedy little hands on a free country …

    If the people in Taiwan at some point change their mind (perhaps because China has changed significantly), then that is their decision as well, but until then, I’m all for supporting them to maintain their freedom, whatever the cost. “Mourir pour Taiwan?” - Yes (*), if you make it necessary by starting a war of aggression against your neighbors.

    The days of “backyard politics” are over, as Putin is just learning the hard way in Ukraine.

    (*) And we all know the usual counter: “That’s easy for you to say, keyboard warrior!” - but who wouldn’t be impacted by a war between China and the US?